Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! We are officially ⅓ done with the challenge, and we’re still going strong! Today, I wanted to celebrate the occasion, and to do this, I watched the sequel to my favorite horror movie ever made. Having already seen this movie, I love it, and I hope you all do too. Let’s talk to see if it can surpass its predecessor, and cement its place as a legendary horror movie. Hold on to your hats as we venture back into the dark, horrifying, bloody world… of the Boogeyman. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…

Halloween II (1981)

Halloween II is a very, very interesting film. It was the movie that caused the Halloween Franchise to slip, but also the movie that caused it to split into different timelines. The true story of the Shape was revealed, but not without stunning cinematography, just like its predecessor, and a truly compelling story.

Our tale begins the same night of October 31, 1978, with Mr. Sandman plays in the background. This movie takes place the exact same night as the first, and only begins its story seconds after the ending of Micheal on the balcony. (Before we go ahead, I would strongly recommend you check out October Horror Fest – Day 1 for the review of Halloween, so you’re caught up to speed). Loomis panics, seeing the blood of the boogeyman on his hand. A neighbor from the house next to Loomis asks if everything is ok. Loomis rants to him, telling him to tell the Sheriff that he shot him six times. The Neighbor asks if this is a trick, and says he has been trick or treated to death tonight. Loomis retorts with an incredibly famous line, “You don’t know what death is!” Loomis runs, and the title card begins. The iconic Halloween theme plays, but with a synthwave, 80s-tastic refurbishing, as this movie did come out in 1981. We see the pumpkin from the first movie’s title, as it splits open, revealing a skull.

Coming back to the film, we are treated to an amazing long POV shot of Micheal walking around, a combination of the two amazing methods the previous film paved the way for. Micheal walks into an elderly couple’s house, and grabs a knife. He leaves behind his blood on the table, which the woman realizes. Micheal presumably kills both of them, and leaves. He then walks to the neighbor’s house, as she runs outside to check on her elderly neighbors. Once she walks back in, she turns on the radio, and hears from the radio about the events of the first movie, a common motif in this sequel. Once she is feeling safe, the Shape pops out, plunging his knife into her chest, as blood splatters on her face.

We cut back to the Doyle house, where we meet back up with our girl, Laurie Strode. Laurie is still injured, and is very, very out of it. She is taken to an ambulance by stretcher, and begins her journey to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, one of the main settings of the film. Laurie begs to not go to sleep, as she is terrified of the Boogeyman getting her. Once at the hospital, we see a mother and son, the son with a razor blade in his mouth, profusely bleeding. This is a jab at the 80s myth of razor blades being in Halloween candy. Although this little plotline has nothing to do with the actual film, it is funny. Laurie is then carted out by two male hospital workers, Jimmy, and Budd. Once Laurie is taken in, she immediately flies into the care of the doctor. This doctor is a drunk, and does not care about his job in the slightest. Laurie needs to be put to sleep to treat her stab wound from Micheal, and she panics. Dr. Mixter attempts to console her, as two nurses are around her.

We meet back up with Loomis and Sheriff Bracket, where they are searching the town for the Boogeyman. Bracket is getting completely fed up with Loomis, and animosity builds between the pair. Loomis still carries his gun, and swears he shot him six times. Loomis keeps saying that he isn’t a man. Suddenly, the pair see Micheal walking down the street. Loomis goes to shoot him, while Bracket subdues the doctor. Micheal is then run into by a police car, and smashed against a van, bursting into flames. Loomis isn’t sure if it is truly the shape, as a car pulls up behind them. Deputy Gary Hunt bursts out of the vehicle, telling Bracket that they found Annie, his daughter from the first movie. An officer is left with “Micheal” as he burns, and the trio take off.

Back at the hospital, we meet more of the staff. We first truly meet Jimmy, who develops a strange crush on Laurie. The pair get along, until we meet Head Nurse, Mrs. Alves, who takes Jimmy out of the room. Back at the Doyle home, Annie’s body is taken out of the house, and Bracket sees her body. He shuts her eyes, in a heartbreaking scene. He wants to go home to tell his wife the news, and Sheriff Bracket leaves the movie. Deputy Hunt fills in as the head of the police department for the remainder of the film. Before Bracket leaves, he has an incredible moment of acting, cursing Loomis for letting this monster out. Hunt and Loomis then deliberate about the verification of the burned “Micheal”. He tells Hunt that as his doctor, he never saw anything in “it” that was even remotely human, and goes to the coroner’s office with a dentist to confirm the death of the shape. We enter a shopping district, where we meet another nurse at the hospital, Nurse Karen Bailey. She is late for her shift, and is driving to the hospital. As a kid walks out of a store, he bumps into the Shape. The Boogeyman lives, and starts walking towards Haddonfield Memorial Hospital as the theme plays.

We get back to the hospital, where we learn that Bud is really a stuck up jerk, who doesn’t care about the Shape. We meet the security guard, Mr. Garret, who fails to notice Micheal on his security cameras, as he lets Nurse Bailey into the building. Nurse Karen Bailey finally gets into the office, as we learn that her and Budd are in a relationship. Budd begins to sing an extremely disgusting song, and Jimmy gets fed up. He yells at Budd, and Budd says that he and Laurie won’t work. After this, we see another POV shot of Micheal, as he walks through the hospital, steering clear of nurses. Jimmy then tells Laurie who Micheal is, and that Micheal Myers was the man who was after her. Laurie is shocked, remembering the Myers house, and how Micheal killed his sister 15 years prior. Once Mrs. Alves gets into Laurie’s room, she attempts to call her parents, when the phones don’t work. This causes Laurie to become even more scared, and Mrs. Alves sends Nurse Janet to tell Mr. Garret that the phones are down. Mr. Garret then heads out to check on the phone lines, and gives Janet his walkie-talkie, which she doesn’t know how to use. Mr. Garret then finds blood, presumably Micheal’s, in a dumpster, when he is jumpscared by a cat. What follows is a horrifying, tense, blood curdling scene of Mr. Garret searches the warehouse for anything, as he desperately attempts to Radio to Janet. WIthout warning, Micheal jumps out, hitting the Security Guard on the head with a hammer, killing him. One worker down. Janet still can’t get through on the walkie talkie, and eventually gives up, getting back on the floor to perform her Duties.

Back at the station, we see that it is incredibly hard for the dentist to discover the dental remains of the fake “Micheal”, as we know, but he can see that he is only 17 years old. Micheal Myers is 21. Loomis tells Deputy Hunt that he must assume that Micheal is still out there, and Deputy Hunt takes it upon himself to truly take the threat seriously, doing what Bracket didn’t. He orders the police back out on a full sweep of the town. We then visit the place where this all started, the Myers House. A mob is outside, throwing bottles and rocks at the house. Deputy Hunt attempts to calm down the mob, when an officer comes up to him, reporting nothing from the sweep. Hunt orders them back out once again. Loomis tells Hunt about Micheal as a patient. How the evil inside of him was biding its time, until now. The men continue to talk, until two young boys come up to him. They are worried about their 17 year old friend, Ben Tramer, who was wearing a stupid mask. This is Laurie’s crush from the first movie, and this confirms that the Boogeyman is out there, and the police wrongly killed a kid. The Officer comes back to Hunt, telling him how there was a break in at the local elementary school. The trio depart once more.

Back at the hospital, Budd pranks Karen by pulling her into bed and hugging her. She panics, swiping him in his finger. Budd is not a good man by any means, and wants Karen to leave the babies she’s supposed to be watching so they can make out in the hot tub. Karen, in an EXTREMELY stupid decision, agrees. We briefly catch back up with Laurie, where she has a terrible dream. We see blood spilling onto the floor, an image of a young boy in a mental asylum, with a young Laurie looking at him. We also see a young Laurie talking to her Mother, with her Mother saying that she isn’t her biological Mom. Laurie then briefly wakes, looks around, and then falls back asleep. We then go to the hot tub, where Budd is undressed in the tub, and Karen gets undressed as well and hops in. The two begin to make out, until Karen feels that the temperature is way too hot for a hot tub, and asks Budd to check it out. He does, and we see him fiddle with the dials. Karen gets out and puts on a robe, as we see the Shape kill off Budd in the background. Micheal then comes up to Karen, putting his hand on Karen’s shoulder. She begins to kiss it, and says she has to get back to work, as if he was Budd. She then turns around and sees the face of evil. In an absolutely horrific kill, Micheal repeatedly dunks Karen into the tub. Her skin on her face begins to melt off, as she drowns and is burned alive, the combination of the two worst ways to die. She is thrown out of the tub, and we end the scene with a close up of her melted face. Two more workers down.

At the Elementary school, we see where Micheal broke in, and what he did. Here we learn more lore about Micheal, and the lore that completely changes the franchise, forever. Micheal’s knife is plunged into a Child’s drawing of a sister, as Micheal wrote the word, “Samhain” on the blackboard in blood. Samhain means October 31st. Halloween. Marion Chambers, the nurse from the first movie, reunites with Loomis. She wants to talk to him in private, and tells him that the Governor of the state wants him gone, and out of Haddonfield. There is a marshall waiting to take him away outside, and a Dr. Rogers was given new authority over the Myers case. Back at the hospital, Jimmy promises Laurie he won’t let anything happen to her, until he looks at her face. She is completely unresponsive, and has had a bad reaction to the medication. Jimmy and Janet then run to find Dr. Mixter, and Janet reaches him. His shower is on, but he is sitting on his couch. When Janet touches him, however, he rolls over in his chair to reveal the syringe stuck into his eye. Janet covers her mouth with her hands in shock, and backs away. This is where one of the scariest moments in the film happens. In a parallel to the first movie, Micheal appears from within the darkness. He grabs Janet, and stabs her in the head with an oxygen filled syringe. Dr. Mixter and Janet down, two more workers dead. Nurse Jill and Jimmy are with Laurie, and Jimmy finds it ridiculous that no one is around. He runs throughout the hospital, and finds no one. Nurse Jill then walks out of the room as well, to check on the Babies. The Boogeyman sees this, and goes to kill Laurie. He walks into her room, as she is undefended, and stabs Laurie under the bedsheets. However, when the Shape picks up the covers, Laurie isn’t there. Laurie is limping away, with a broken foot, and still loopy from the medication. She’s a soldier, and won’t go down without a fight. Nurse Jill then walks back into the room, and when she doesn’t find Laurie, she panics, and begins searching the hospital. Laurie finds a room where she feels safe, and collapses to the floor, as we see an absolutely haunting shot of Micheal walking through a hallway. Laurie makes sure the coast is clear, and falls asleep.

Hunt, Loomis, and Marion then walk out of the school, as Hunt promises Loomis that they’ll find him. Loomis asks where he will look, Hunt asks the same, and the both men don’t know. Loomis and Marion then get into the car with the marshall, and head out of Haddonfield. Back at the hospital, Jill is still in a state of panic, and when she goes to find Mr. Garret, he isn’t there. We see on Mr. Garret’s security cams that Micheal walked down a hallway when she didn’t see, and then Jill walked down that same hallway. Jimmy eventually finds Jill, scaring her. The two talk, and Jimmy says that he can’t find anyone. We see Micheal inside the room they are outside of, hiding behind a curtain, staring. Jimmy tells Jill that if she doesn’t find anyone, she needs to drive to the Sheriffs and get help. The two part ways, as Micheal continues to stare. As Laurie continues to sleep, we see Jimmy. He finally finds Mrs. Alves on a table in a dark room. When he feels her pulse, he finds she is dead. He looks at her arm, and finds an IV drip connected to it, blood draining from her body. The entire floor is filled with blood, and as Jimmy attempts to run, he slips, getting knocked out. We see Jill run out to her car and attempt to run away, when the car won’t start. She gets out, and realizes that her tires are slashed, and the gas pipe is slashed as well. In horror, Jill looks around, and sees that the Shape did this to every single car in the parking lot.

Laurie awakes, and stumbles out of her room. As she walks out of the room, Jill finally finds her. She yells to her, asking Laurie to wait. We see through Laurie’s POV in an incredible shot, showing her tunnel vision from the Medication. The Shape then appears behind Jill, and stabs her in the back with a scalpel. In a display of inhuman strength, he lifts Jill off the floor with the scalpel and only one hand. He drops her, and stares at Laurie. Another famous Halloween theme plays in the background, as the iconic Halloween II Chase begins. Micheal walks after Laurie, as she runs with her broken foot through the hospital. This entire sequence is terrifying, and works like a charm. In the basement, Laurie stumbles into the hung up body of Mr. Garret, as Micheal stands before her. She climbs through a window, just barely escaping the swings of the Boogeyman. She gets to an elevator, as we hear Micheal behind her. She hits the buttons in a panic as Micheal gets closer and closer. She gets in, and the door slams behind her. Micheal, however, stops the doors from closing with his hand. He eventually lets go, and Laurie runs out of the building. She finds a car, where she is safe from the Boogeyman, and falls asleep once more.

Back with Loomis, Marion, and the Marshall, Loomis tells Marion about the history of Samhain, and how truly inhuman this pure evil is. Marion then begins to speak, and the words she speaks will change the Halloween franchise forever. The words she speaks cause five different timelines to be made in the movies to come, and the words she speaks change the perception of Micheal Myers, forever. She tells Loomis that there was a file on Micheal that has been sealed by the courts, and Loomis hasn’t seen it. Dr. Rogers was able to see it, and it was unsealed. The file revealed… that Laurie Strode is Micheal Myers’s sister. The Strodes adopted her, and they requested the court to seal the file to protect the family. Loomis immediately finds out that Micheal killed one sister, and now wants to kill the other. Not playing around anymore, Loomis holds his gun to the head of the Marshall, and tells him to get the car back to the hospital. He fires a warning shot that breaks a window, and the car speeds back to Haddonfield.

Back with Laurie, she hides out in the car, until Jimmy enters. In a daze, he tells Laurie that everything will be ok, and tries to drive away. Jimmy either passes out or dies in the car, and he falls onto the steering wheel, causing the horn to blare. Laurie takes his head off it in a panic, as she looks for the Shape outside. Laurie is now alone. Micheal massacred every single worker of the hospital. Laurie climbs out, and crawls on the floor using the last of her strength. She sees Loomis walk into the hospital with Marshall Gumell and Marion, and Laurie can’t scream for help until they get inside. In an absolutely incredible feat of acting, she cries for help. Loomis sends Marshall Gumell to search the hospital, as he and Marrion stick together. Laurie gets to her feet, and begins hobbling towards the door. The Shape then bursts out and walks towards his prey once more. Loomis gets Laurie inside the building with almost no time to spare, and Micheal walks through the glass door, shattering it. Loomis then shoots the Shape multiple times, and he falls to the floor. He sends Marion out to radio for help, and Marshall Gumell gets too close to the boogeyman. Michael gets back up, as Laurie asks why he won’t die. He slits his throat, and the chase continues with Micheal now stalking the duo. Marion radios for help, as Laurie and Loomis barricade themselves in a room. Loomis drops a gun at Laurie’s feet, as Micheal breaks the door down. Loomis goes to shoot the Monster, when he realizes his gun is out of ammo. Micheal stabs Loomis with the scalpel, and he falls to the floor. Laurie, now terrified beyond belief, says “Micheal” to her attacker. Hearing this, Micheal relaxes his arm with his scalpel to the side. He does the famous head tilt, before once again walking towards Laurie with his weapon out. Laurie, in an absolutely incredible and insane shot, shoots Micheal Myers in both of his eyes. Blood then begins to drip out, making the famous “Blood Tears” Michael mask. Micheal, now blinded, swings widely at Laurie. Loomis, with fight still left in him, begins turning the valves of gas in the room. Laurie does the same, and Micheal begins becoming disoriented.

Loomis then tells Laurie to run, and she does. She runs out of the room and down the hallway, as Loomis and Micheal stand face to face. Loomis tells Micheal that it’s time, and ignites his lighter, causing a massive fireball explosion to envelope the room and hallway. Laurie, behind cover, stares back at the fire. Micheal Myers, the Shape, the Boogeyman, the Embodiment of Evil, walks out of the fire, with flames covering him. Micheal walks closer and closer, until he finally falls. We see a close up on his mask, fire consuming it. Once outside, Hunt gets the body count of 10 killed, so far. Laurie gets wheeled away, and gets into another Ambulance. The Ambulance then drives away into a dense, terrifying fog. We see Laurie in the vehicle, with immense fear, sadness, and pain plastered on her face. Mr. Sandman begins to play once more, as we see Micheal Myers’s mask burn.

That brings us to the end of Halloween II! This sequel, although not the best, is beloved in many fans’ hearts, including mine. This movie changed the game, and caused the canonicity of Laurie being Micheal’s sister to forever change the franchise. This movie haunts me to this day, and I love it with all my heart. Mr. Sandman now forever reminds me of the evil that hunts in Haddonfield, and I hope it does the same for you now. We are officially ⅓ of the way through October Horror Fest, and I’m so, so, so excited to have been able to present you with this movie, and the 21 more to come! Before I go, just think to yourself. You are truly lucky, because… you don’t know what death is…